Young Blood
by birdywings
Summary: We were all young and naive once, and the hardest part of growing up wasn't the ups and downs we faced along the way but how to remember to be young when we weren't anymore. Elsa remembered because she was reminded every day of it. She remembered and she didn't think she'd ever forget. She didn't think she could. (Peter Pan inspired fic)


**So this oneshot is named after the song 'Young Blood' by the Naked and Famous but was inspired by Disney's Peter Pan, which I still immensely enjoy at sixteen;)**

 **Be sure to check out my other Jelsa fanfictions if you enjoy this one and don't forget to review!**

 **-birdywings**

* * *

Young Blood

We were all younng and naive once. We didn't know any better and we couldn't have fallen for anything worse than what we believed in. We made mistakes - some we learned from and others we had to make more than once to get it right. It took strength to get back up after the fall but it took courage to first fall down. We made choices in the past that we may regret in the future, but without them we may not be where we are.

Elsa was young once, (she wasn't anymore but she was), a long time ago now. She was young and not as terribly naive as they came but she had her fair share of moments. She didn't know any better at the time but she believed in what she fell for. She made mistakes and learned from most of them. She was abundant in strength and even more so in courage, so it was easy to fall down and pick herself up without a scratch. And she made plenty of choices just as everyone does. But the difference between her choices and everyone else's was that she regretted absolutely none of them.

She was old now - far older than she could have predicted she'd be. But she still felt young underneath all those wrinkles and brittle bones. So it surprised her every time she looked in the mirror to find a face she didn't recognize. But she was learning that, whether young or old, youth lived in the heart and no amount of wrinkles or creaky joints could take that away from her.

There was no need to rely on her memory to remember her childhood because she didn't think she'd ever forget. She didn't think she _could_ forget. She was reminded of it everyday, after all because he refused to let her forget what it felt like to be young nor to lose sight of what the world looked like through star-dusty eyes when you dreamt, hoped, remembered, wondered and were even frightened. But most of all, he wouldn't let her forget how to believe... And to have a little fun along the way, of course.

* * *

" _The night fell into silence as the world drifted off for sleep with the setting sun," Her very words seemed to take a life of their own from her tongue as Elsa resurrected the story from her imagination, and Jack Frost supposed that was what he enjoyed most about her tales; that her voice reeled you in whether you wanted to be imersed in the story or not, and once you were in, there was no escape. At least not until the end._

 _"Not even the chirp of a cricket nor croak of a toad distrubed the quiet. But what was peaceful was quickly shattered when all at once the sky was encroached in pitch blackness as simply as if someone had turned out the lights. And perhaps it was that simple; for there stood the Boogeyman himself amidst the shadows with satisfaction at what he considered to be his greatest craftmanship yet,"_

 _Had Jack not been so utterly engrossed in the story, he might have taken notice of Anna's awe-struck expression as she absorbed her sister's captivating words, which he would have undoubtedly laughed at. Had he taken notice of it, he also would have noticed the same expression on his face if he'd thought about it. But he couldn't think. He couldn't think and he wouldn't be going to sleep tonight. He knew that just as he knew that his mind was wide awake with the sound of her voice._

 _"-and just when his fearlings had tranformed every child's dream into their worst nightmare, the temperature rapidly seemed to decrease few degrees moments before his nightmares were extinguished when struck with ice. The collsion sprayed snowflakes against the stars, and Pitch Black emerged from the debris in an infuriated state. But he didn't have long to mourn the loss of his foiled plans when he was struck with_ _the ice Jack Frost assaulted him with from the tip of his staff. However, Pitch Black proved to be a worthy opponent who would not be so easily defeated, at least not without a fight. And he was ruthless in his advances, but eventualy, the Guardian emerged victorious and restored pleasant dreams to the snoozing children."_

 _"Again! Again!" Anna's tiny hands clapped together as she chanted._

 _""There will be another night for this story. But for now, you must sleep." Elsa said sternly but also with even the slightest trace of an amused smile as she tucked her sister between the blankets, and almost instantly the six-year-old's restless mind set sail for her dreams._

 _Elsa then crawled under her own covers and buried her face into the sheets_ , _which still smeeled strongly of laundry detergent, before drifting off to dream her own dreams. Not even a moment passed before the window was carefully jimmied open and the silhouette of no more than a boy cast by the moon took shape on the floor._

 _His vision took a minute to adjust to the darkness but he thoroughly surveyed the room when it did, and he'd just barely lain a toe on the premises when Elsa began to stir. He dodged behind the shadow of the chimney when her footsteps padded in his direction._

 _"Don't be afraid," her voice couldn't be softer and her words any more gentle. "I won't hurt you."_

 _You can only imagine his shock when she spoke to him. But neverheless, he managed a rapid recovery before risking the chance of peering from around the wall._

 _You'd think that Elsa would have imagined him older by the number of years he already had behind him. But she already knew that his complexion hid his age well. So she wasn't at all surprised to find him exactly the way she saw him in her mind; with hair as white as fresh-fallen snow that fell into eyes that were bluer than blue and stared intensely back at Elsa as if they were trying to make sense of her. But what they could make sense of they sparkled at like the sea at dusk._

 _He stooped to her level so he could properly face her when he asked the question he'd long been yearning to ask of her, and sounded as if she was the one who was hard to believe when he asked it. "You can see me?"_

 _"Of course I can," she took his hand then, and he realized long after she'd touched him that his breath was still held as if he was still expeting her fingers to slip through his grasp any moment now just as they all had before. "I believe in you Jack, always have and always will. Even when I've grown up."_

 _Her words dropped like stones in his chest, and he suddenly couldn't breathe. "Grow up? You can't grow up! You're still so young. Why should you have to grow up if you have no desire to?"_

 _"I'm afraid it doesn't work that way." She said sadly._

 _"Then I'm afraid that you won't be staying long enough to grow up."_

 _She was puzzled when he offered her his extended hand but took it gladly all the same. "But Jack, where are we going?"_

 _"Come with me and you'll find out." He pressed a finger against his lips, almost as if this would be their little secret and theirs alone. And she wanted to keep it that way._

 _"Wait," she said before they could reach the window. His grip released hers when she disappeared into the shadow of her bedroom and returned in a moment with his staff lain in her palms. "I thought you might need this more than I do."_

 _The spirit had almost forgotten he'd left it here many nights ago by mistake, but also quite intentionally since its retrieval seemed to be the only valid reason he could give himself to keep returning to eavesdrop on her stories._

 _He took it with gratitude but also didn't quite want it back just yet. After all, for what reason would he have to return tomorrow night and all the nights to come? Elsa's limbs coiled tightly around his torso when she was hoisted onto his back, and together they were carried by the wind from the earth towards the moon and stars and beyond._

 _For miles Elsa could only see navy skies freckled with the occasional star above her and the ember lights glowing like fireflies in the city below. But it wasn't long before her scenery was altered to snow-covered peaks in the frosted land of the North Pole._

 _They landed with bare feet in the snow and dug their toes deep between the snowflakes because the cold didn't affect them the way it did others, and Jack Frost just couldn't seem to resist when he pelted a snowball at her head of platinum locks when it was turned._

 _His assault certainly had the element of surprise in its favour, but Elsa never once participated in a snowball fight unprepared. A snowball simultaneously materialized in each of her hands - a skill she had mastered in recent years - which she threw with a stronger arm than the spirit would have estimated. They struck him square in the chest and he'd just barely recovered from the impact when the ice appeared at his feet and sent him slipping and sliding to the ground._

 _Already, Elsa had gotten busy building herself a fort where she hid in safety from whatever attack Jack had up his sleeve next. She was ready for him this time, but that was the thing about snowball fights; the only rule was that there were no rules, and it seemed the spirit took that literally when he performed an air raid from above in the dusty clouds._

 _Down, down the snowballs rained upon her head and it was for a frantic moment she ran in search of cover before she was able to retaliate with a blizzard to knock him out of the air, and finally, mold him into the shape of a snowman from the pile he was buried in. It wasn't until her fingers and toes were numb beyond feeling and that she began to shiver with goosebumps that he led her to the warmth and security of the toy factory of Ole Saint Nicholas._

 _They were welcomed by the security committee consisting of two yetis of whom Jack requested they be led directly to the centre of command. They knowingly obliged and hurried the shivering Elsa along, who marvelled at every corner of the workshop. All around her yetis and elves were busy at work in the building and tinkering of toys. Balloons popped in the distance, keyboards and saxophones played in the background, and at her feet, remote controlled cars circulated the floor with an elf or two in pursuit._

 _Into the workspace of St. Nick they walked, only to dodge back out into the corridor when a remote plane he was tampering with went wrong and caused minimal damage to his workspace when it went zipping beyond control around their heads and even set fire to the tip of one of the yeti's ponytail before crash-landing at their feet._

 _The yeti garbled on a panic as he tried to pat the fire out with his meaty hands before Jack threw a snowball on his head, which was now scorched bald and pink and at which Elsa had to stifle a laugh at the sight of._

 _"Ah, guests!" The round man bellowed as they were ushered fully into the room. "Welcome! Please to have seat and I will get you cocoa. Marvin! I need two cocoas." He ordered the yeti who was still lamenting at the loss of his fur. "Don't worry, it will grow back. Now get me cocoa!" He repeated before shutting the door._

 _Elsa picked the plane up from the floor and studied it between her hands. The propellers were dented and bent beyond repair it seemed as she rotated them between her fingers and the yellow paint was chipped and charred from the fire, but like Jack Frost, Santa had more then a few tricks up his sleeves._

 _"Ah, it's a work in progress. I figure I already covered the ground with cars, I might as well cover air too." His thick Russian accent slurred his words, but made them sound as whole and as hearty as he was. "So Jack, what do I owe pleasure?"_

 _"Nothing. I'm merely just showing Elsa here the sights."_

 _"Ah, Elsa. Yes, I remember you. You live in Norway with little sister and parents. Nice house. Delicious cookies too. Who bakes them? Have to get recipe." The man mused as he absentmindedly rubbed his round belly while Elsa peered curiously up at him from under her bangs without blinking once._

 _"I don't know North, you're looking a little large in the middle. Maybe you ought to lay off the sweets for awhile." Jack commented as he poked the man in his torso with the end of his staff._

 _"If you're suggesting I'm fat Jack, then I will personally have yetis throw you in sack through magic portal again."_

 _Jack replied with a gesture of surrender just as the yetis entered the room with cocoa and cookies, and it was before the warmth of the hearth that Elsa relished the hot beverage in small but frequent sips. She wiped her chocolate-stained mouth with the end of her sleeve once she'd finished - because what's the fun in using a napkin anyway? - when Santa asked her if she would like to build a toy to which she eagerly nodded._

 _She was escorted by St. Nicholas himself to the doll-making station where she stitched and sewed together a plush snowman whom she called Olaf and, knowing that she would both very much appreciate and adore him, she made up her mind to give him to Anna as a gift._

 _"What do you say we go someplace warmer?" Jack asked her when she'd finished and was admiring her work. They soon left the North Pole, which was cold and empty for miles that were filled with only mountains of snow. But as she watched the workshop lights shrink in the distance behind them, Elsa couldn't remember ever feeling warmer or more whole than she felt that night._

 _Winter soon became spring in the tunnels of the Warren, which was home to the Easter Bunny and where Jack wasn't very popular nor welcome but that didn't stop him from coming and going whenever he pleased._

 _Jack lowered Elsa from his back to the ground, which was soft with a lush green lawn, and already she missed the nip of snowflakes melting between her toes but she quickly grew to love the Warren as much as she did the North Pole once they got busy painting eggs and hiding them for one another to find. Their games even restorted to egg-pelting when they grew bored and it was by dodging out of Elsa's range that Jack ended up tripping into the stream of green that was running through the gap between inclines._

 _Elsa skidded to a stop at the edge of the bank where she knelt to peer into the murky water for a sign of Jack when she was yanked in herself by the cuff of her sleeve. It wasn't until they both surfaced for air - stiff from head to toe with green paint - that Elsa cracked an egg over Jack's head and watched with suppressed laughter, so as not to wind up with the taste of paint on her tongue, as the yolk trickled down the bridge of his nose._

 _An amused grin brought his lips to life and reddened his cheeks when he slpashed the colored water at her, which she could only laugh out loud at, not even minding the mouthful of the bitter taste of paint she expected to get. But it didn't taste bitter. It tasted like eggs made seven ways; sunny-side up, baked, poached, boiled, devilled, scrambled, and, (her personal favorite), omleted._

 _They eventually climbed out of the shallow stream and threaded yolk out of their hair as they rinsed off as muh paint as they could under a waterfall where the water was clear and clean, and that was when they heard the hopping._

 _"Time to go!" Jack exclaimed when he pulled a snowglobe from his pocket and threw it to the ground where it erupted into the disoriented image of what appeared to be a golden castle suspended in the sky. "It's time for a trip down memory lane!"_

 _Elsa was scooped up in the crook of his arm before she could even consider asking what he meant, and together they dove through the portal just before Jack's toe could be clipped by the boomerang that sliced through the air by the hand of Bunnymund of whom Elsa only caught a glimpse of before the scene shifted._

 _The landscape molded into focus, but she wouldn't have noticed because she couldn't open her eyes at first. Sunlight reflected off the golden walls of the castle ahead, rendering her watered eyes blind to its beautifully elegant structure._

 _They landed at the edge of a platform that overlooked the clouds abroad, which were white and fluffy and looked exactly as Elsa drew them, almost as if they'd materialized right off the pages of her drawings. Her eyes had to be rubbed several times before she was able to open them, and when she did she immediately wished she hadn't; for the height was so great you couldn't even see where it ended below, and Elsa suddenly felt light in the head at the very sight of it and had to avert her eyes._

 _A swarm of wings could be heard beating in the distance, but it wasn't until the flock broke through the clouds that Elsa recognized them as hummingbirds._

 _"Tooth fairies." Jack told her as his fist unfurled to reveal a tooth that had been dropped when they passed over their heads._

 _Elsa followed him inside where the fairies were busy at work trading the teeth for coins before fluttering back in the direction they'd come. She was awed by their speed and care as they handled the teeth and placed them in their respective memory boxes, and couldn't help wondering where the three teeth that she'd lost could be found amongst the countless boxes._

 _"Beautiful aren"t they?" A voice spoke from behind them, and somehow, Elsa was already imagining whom it belonged to even before she turned around. "It's difficult to know how to properly admire the childhood memories of a mortal. They're given so little time to begin with, so why don't they understand to enjoy it more rather than yearn to be old? You're only young once after all, and you won't remember for very long what that felt like. But I suppose that's why we're here. It's our duty to remind them what mistakes they made in their youth and how they grew to learn from them, and our pleasure to remind them to be forever young in both their heart and soul." Toothania lamented, and Elsa felt so helpless in not knowing which words to say to console her. So she did the only thing she could think of at that moment, and took the fairy by the hand._

 _Tooth glanced down at the child's two beady blue eyes with a stricken expression at first, as if she was trying remember what human flesh felt like before a smile was drawn in her lips._

 _"I was beginning to wonder when your visit would be paid Elsa," Tooth said. "-and now that Jack has brought you, let's see if we can locate your memories."_

 _Tooth led her into one of her many corridors of teeth, which were sorted alphabetically by first name, and produced from a wall of Es, a golden box inscribed with an illustration of Elsa._

 _"Take it Elsa, and look closely for things you may have missed before and things you may have forgotten now."_

 _Elsa's eyes fell closed as the box opened and her surroundings seemed to whisk her down memory lane. Suddenly, she was awash in the day of Anna's birth, which was a day she didn't remember particularly well in detail, only in brief and clouded glimpses. But now, she saw two tiny fists clenched around the two pale fingers of a three-year-old Elsa. A baby Anna snoozed soundlessly in the arms of her mother, who peered down at her reddened round face with affection as she stroked her dark tuft of hair atop her mostly-bald head._

 _"Say hello to your baby sister Elsa." Her father told her as he hoisted her up onto the bed._

 _She crawled into her mother's lap and carefully cradled baby in the crook of her arm as though she held glass when given to her by her mother. She stared down at her sleeping face, which was fair and round and she even thought that she looked like an 'Anna' then. Her ears protruded from behind what little hair she had then, which was darker than what it grew into, and wiggled slightly when she yawned._

 _Here is what Elsa remembered from that day; a sleeping face that was as round and as red as a tomato but represented an ill temper prefectly, a firm grip that would never be underestimated, a mind that was made up and knew who she was from the very beginning, and two sisters who treasured one another not in spite of their flaws but because of them. Who loved completely and unconditionally._

 _The four faces melted from view, and from them morphed the night Elsa had lost her first tooth. It was just after the hour of midnight struck that Elsa awoke in a fit of sputters and coughs until finally she stubled out of bed and spat out on her floor a tooth. She screamed at the sight of it, and into the room burst her parents who took a minute or two to asses the situation before successfully calming their daughter down and explaining to her that losing teeth wasn't anything to fear, that it was only part of a natural aging process as the tears streamed down her cheeks._

 _"But I don't want to grow up." Elsa sobbed as he mother helped her clean the tooth._

 _"I know it seems scary now, but it soon won't anymore."_

 _"But I want to stay small." She pouted._

 _Her mother's fingers threaded through her platinum strands as she told her, "I want that too Elsa. But you won't always be, and you won't always want to be. Not for long."_

 _A restless Elsa tossed and turned all night that evening until finally drifting off at five in the morning before waking up again only minutes later. But in that time, a fairy had already come with a coin and gone with her tooth, a discovery at which she was quite distressed to make when she awoke, and it was only the very next day that she spent her coin on a wish. A wish for her tooth back because all the coins in the world weren't going to pay for the return of her youth._

 _The memory rippled as if someone had thrown a pebble in the water before focusing on a day spent at the park with her father and a three-year-old Anna, who's feet were eagerly exploring the earth._

 _As Anna built castles in the sandbox with their father, Elsa grasped the cool metal of the monkey-bars and swung her weight forward. She'd never made it the whole way before, and that day unfortunately wasn't going to be today either._

 _Her grip slipped from around the bar and she fell to the pebbled-ground. Sh_ _e closed her eyes before the fall, figuring that it was how everyone got through the worst of it, so the pain didn't register immediately but it did eventually. Her father called after her, and already he was at her side with a cloth and band-aid to clean her up. The skin on her knees and elbows had been scraped clean off where the blood nkw began to ooze from when she bent them to sit up. The tears were in her eyes but not yet falling; and if they did fall, she didn't think she'd crying from the pain sk muh as not being able to achieve her goal._

 _"Don't fret Elsa," her father said. "it won't be long now. Soon you'll be climbing there and back again before you know it."_

 _"I should think I'll fall before I can make it even halfway."_

 _He smiled then as he dabbed gently at her wound witth a cloth. "Sometimes we need to fall down in life Elsa, that way we know how to get back up again."_

 _She contemplated his words awhile before picking herself back up and trying again. But before she did, she ripped the band-aids of her elbows and knees because she wanted to see her wounds. She wanted to remind herself of the bruises she collected along the way when she next fell down, but even more, she wanted to remember where she was when she conquered her challenge. And conquer it she did. But not wihout falling down a few times along the way._

 _She found Jack and Tooth waiting right where she'd left them when she resurfaced from her memories, and it was behind her that she left her memories when they left Tooth's company. But it didn't matter. It didn't matter because she couldn't forget. Not again, not ever._

 _She certainly didn't forget that she was a little behind on sleep either, and it was even before they reached the Island of Sleepy Sands that she began to doze. But Jack made sure she remained wide awake for just a little longer, she couldn't miss the best part after all._

 _He found them a perfect view at the top of a dune where the Island extended down below as far as the eye could see, and it was as far as Elsa could see that she watched the golden tendrils of sand being weaved into dreams. Her eyes grew large with facination as everything from birds, to dinosaurs, to airplanes, materialized from the sand and disappeared in the clouds that covered the sky to find its dreamer._

 _"I don't want to grow up Jack." The tears fell before she realized, and she was too late to catch them._

 _He glanced at her crestfallen blue eyes, which suddenly looked grey like the sky on a cloudless day, and realized suddenly that this was the one thing he couldn't fix for her. He could bring her fun when life was dull, give her hope when she lost faith, make her wonder when she doubted, give her sweet dreams when she had nightmares and failed to sleep, even remind her of what it felt like to be young when she grew old. But that was the closest he would ever get to protecting her from the ravages of time. And he suddenly didnt want this night to end._

 _"Please don't let me grow up," her tone was desperate now as she choked on her words on the way out. "I don't want to forget."_

 _He gave her hand a firm squeeze, because if he was sure of anything, he was sure of his next words. "You know I can't do that Elsa. I can't stop time nor slow its pace, I'm not Father Time," she laughed a little through her tears because only Jack was capable of doing that when she was sad. "But I will say this; I won't ever let you forget."_

 _"Promise?"_

 _"Here's my promise," he slid into her hands his staff, which she clenched tightly in her small fists. "I'll be back for that. But I have a distinct feeling that you might need it more than I do."_

 _The soft fabric of his sweatshirt gently grazed the tip of her nose when she curled up in the crook of his arm, and try as she might, Elsa couldn't fight the exhaustion weighing heavily on her eyelids for very long. So the last thing she could recollect from that night was being bid a goodnight by a golden man with a tip of his hat before drifting off to dream her own dreams._

* * *

The window was clouded over with fog, which Elsa wiped away with the heel of her palm to peer through where she found a face she was glad to recognize.

You would think that with all the time that had passed she'd have imagined a few years added to his face, but she was content to find him exactly as she remembered. He even looked slightly younger; his grin was wide and crooked on his face and his blue eyes only seemed brighter and bluer than before, and she need only dream up what possible mischief he could be up to now.

Some things neve changed - Jack Frost certainly hadn't, and neither had she if she carefully considered it. She was still the same Elsa, still _his_ Elsa. Nothing, not even age, could alter that. There was no growing down or growing up when Jack Frost was there for her, right where she needed him. There was only the young blood in her veins that he reminded her of whenever she appeared to be forgetting. But she wouldn't forget. She didn't think she _could._ She believed in him after all, and that was somehing that wasn't so easily forgotten.

* * *

 **Thoughts? Comments? Review! And what do you guys think of the cover?:)**


End file.
